News from elsewhere overshadows stand-ins doing the business in Switzerland

FC Zurich 1 Arsenal 2 
Europa League Group A - Matchday One 
Thursday 8th September 2022 6.45pm (local time)   

In years to come, if the question of ‘Where were you when you heard the Queen had died?’ is asked of an Arsenal supporter, I suspect many will respond that they were watching an early evening Europa League match on the television, although kudos to the respectable number of Gooners who made the trip to Switzerland at relatively short notice. They were rewarded with a dominant performance, even if the chasm between the two sides was not reflected on the scoresheet, as the Gunners did enough to secure the points, but no more.

Mikel Arteta started four of the players from Sunday’s defeat at Old Trafford – Gabriel, Xhaka, Lonkonga and Martinelli. Drafted in for debuts were keeper Matt Turner and young Brazilian winger Marquinhos. Also starting were Tomiyasu, Holding, Tierney, Vieira and Nketiah. Turner had a hair-raising moment when he cued up the opposition for a shot from a tight angle, which hit the side netting. Arsenal fans have become familiar with the keeper gifting the opposition a chance when Ramsdale plays, so no change there then. 

Zurich had a decent amount of support, vocal too, even if their normal ground was being used for an athletics meeting. Arguably, this was not such a disadvantage as it meant they were closer to the pitch at the stadium that normally hosts St Gallen. 

After 15 minutes, Arsenal went ahead as they counter attacked with ruthless efficiency. Vieira received the ball outside the area in his own half, and created space with quick feet to send Eddie Nketiah haring after a long pass down the left wing. Marquinhos made a bursting run to get into the area and finish off the number 14’s cross sweetly first time. It was a thing of beauty and gives faith in the quality of Mikel Arteta’s younger options. 

Arsenal for the most part looked comfortable afterwards, although failed to create significant danger. Zurich came back into the game and as the interval neared, an Nketiah challenge in his own box was not seen as a foul by the referee… until VAR informed him otherwise. Apparently, VAR was not used in the West Ham match later in the evening (albeit that was a different competition), which just goes to show the margins in this sport can be so random for all kinds of reasons. 

Zurich converted their penalty, although by this time, I’ll admit to being distracted by the news that the Queen had died, so was half watching the game and viewing the TV news on my laptop. BT Sport delayed their half-time analysis as they ran round trying to find black ties for studio pundits Martin Keown and Kevin Campbell. It was all fairly surreal. It’s the first time in my life that the reigning monarch has met their end, although I do hope to live long enough to experience this at least once more. The odds of me outliving Prince William though are long to say the least.

There is a story that the Queen was an Arsenal fan, which probably has more to do with her links with Coutts Bank and the Hill-Wood family than any genuine interest in the sport. I believe the last football match she attended in the flesh was the 1996 Euros Final, which concluded with her handing the trophy to Jurgen Klinsmann, 30 years after Germany had been beaten in the World Cup final at the same Wembley stadium and she gave the trophy to Bobby Moore. I think it’s fair to say that horse racing was her sporting love, although it’s a nice idea to think that she had a soft spot for The Gunners. An element of the Zurich crowd did not feel that way about the departed monarch, as a hastily arranged moment’s silence before the second half kicked off got the bird from the less respectful locals before it concluded. It’s certainly the first time I have seen a minute’s silence before a second half. West Ham fans dealt with the danger of their own tribute being interrupted by opposition supporters later in the evening by applauding and singing the national anthem. On which note, it's going to be strange initially to see the England team singing ‘God Save The King’ at the World Cup, and before that against Italy and Germany in the Nations League. 

Anyway, back to the football… for now, as there is the little matter of the weekend ahead to discuss later. The second half saw Arsenal do what they needed to by re-establishing their lead. A find cross from Marquinhos was met by an excellent far post header from Nketiah after 61 minutes. And that was pretty much that. The rest of the game kind of fizzled out with substitutions but little in the way of significant incident. And even if it was a complete thriller, certainly the minds of those back in the UK would have been elsewhere. In a way, it felt a little like 9/11 back in 2001, when Arsenal played a game in Mallorca, a few hours after the Twin Towers tragedy. A major event making a football match seem fairly insignificant.

Credit to Arsenal for doing the business. The significance of winning the group will be playing two less matches as the second place sides take part in a qualifying round to make the last 16. The chances of Mikel Arteta having two free midweeks were enhanced by the later result from Eindhoven in which PSV could only draw with Bodo Glimt. You feel that if Arsenal manage to win their three home games, they will surely top the group. The games do come thick and fast – not the usual fortnight between matches, but six fixtures in nine midweeks – the three others see two filled by a Nations League break and the third by a Premier League home match v Manchester City. So there will be no shortage of fixtures to watch. Ironically, I was thinking of writing the occasional, more general editorial-style piece on this blog, at the request of my sometime co-author Alex Fynn. That isn’t going to happen until we get the occasional midweek off – maybe during the international break then. I’m also off to Qatar to watch eight World Cup group games in late November / early December, so will maybe do a World Cup diary of sorts. 

More immediately, we await the announcement this morning from the Premier League regarding this weekend’s round of matches, which I expect to come through any minute. Given the congested nature of the season, I imagine there would be the will to get the games played, but who knows? I am very much of a ‘life goes on’ persuasion myself, but one thing is more certain than another Manchester City title next May (or is it June now?) – my opinion will have absolutely zero influence. Hopefully I will be at the Emirates on Sunday afternoon anyway. 

As for yesterday’s events in Switzerland, a case of job done. A solid and dominant enough performance against a team struggling for form and a welcome three points in the bag. The performances of Vieira and Marquinhos were encouraging. And Eddie Nketiah stepped up to the plate – we can forgive him the sloppy concession of a penalty, outweighed by his contribution to the two goals. It was good to get a win after tasting defeat the previous weekend and if the team can get another three points against Everton this weekend, it will indicate that, just perhaps, the 2022-23 Arsenal are a more resilient beast than we saw last season… if, of course, the game goes ahead. 

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